Showing posts with label Victorian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Victorian. Show all posts

Tuesday 2 August 2022

Victorian Fishing Scene


What a good picture this is.  'The Mornings Catch,' by James Clark Hook, 1877.
This tells us much about the rough lives out forefathers lived.  Not just the danger of all night fishing in rough seas, often quite far out to sea, but also the hard work left for the women in the morning.  The fish has to be sorted, taken by creel to where customers lay in wait, and hopefully a good deal done, possibly door to door.  This on top of whatever house they possessed, possibly rented, stone or hard dirt floor, outside toilet, no running water, several children at that time being sent to school, and normal daily routine had to be followed.  
There was of course no pension, no welfare state, and people worked until they dropped, unless they, or a relative got lucky and made a fortune.  Fortunes in the 19th century could of course be made and lost within a generation.  Limited medicine, no painkillers bar chloroform, smoking, poor diet, though the fisherfolk and farmers could manage reasonably well, and most dead by their 50s.   
James Clark Hook 1819 - 1907, became quite famous for his sea pictures.  He painted so many they were known as 'Hookscapes.'  
I must admit I like sea pictures and this one, the view, the colours and the reflection of life in late Victorian Cornwall (at least many were painted there) appears true to life.  Painting however, does not indicate the smell of the fish!  In this way we are lucky.  


Wednesday 27 October 2021

Victorian Budget and Win 11


Windows 11 is sitting on my 'Upgrade' awaiting introduction.  I am not sure if I ought to go ahead with this, I am awaiting news of those who have downloaded it already and review their problems, and there will certainly be problems here.  
TechRadar has already offered help for those who have found difficulties.  It looks a good site for such problems.  There are many other similar sites out there, some however have too many adverts, some seek money, some are dodgy.  
My intention is to wait a bit, see how many folk suffer, and then install.  I suspect this will take all day to finish and then another day restore the lost items and working out what has gone missing.  Normal Microsoft work then? 


I had a bath the other day, and this was a mistake.  You see I normally shower but sitting in the bath I was able to scan around and in this manner noticed all the dirt that has accumulated since I last had a proper clean of this place.  It was not attractive.  So Monday saw me scrub the er, scum, from all around, and then plan to replace the filthy seal which has become somewhat degraded (somewhat!).
However, luck was with me and my dinner made me nauseous so I was forced to stop work.
Overcoming this took until the next day when I went over to the Garden Cafe to meet an old friend, I only have 'old friends' these days, for coffee.  There we did the honourable thing and took all the people we know apart, put the world to rights, and risked frostbite sitting in the gardens.  
To warm up we wandered and we cheerily greeted a volunteer gardener inside a large bush of some sort as we passed, his muffled answer was not quite so cheery, and wandered about the gardens enjoying the fruits of their labours.  We have rarely met, she has been making use of the new freedoms, in spite of Covid still existing, to meet all her old friends, and she has many!  When we worked at the museum have the day was taken up by visits of her old boyfriends!   It was nice to get out for a while.
 
     
This Billionaire Sunak was informing the House of how to increase the nations wealth today.  I did not look in.  Too much, far too much, has already been leaked to his friendly media, and they will always make it look good so I have a good idea of what would be said.  Tomorrow, once the clever people have looked it over, we will find out exactly how Sunak has avoided once again taxing his wife's £1.3 Billion company in which he has a share, yet increased charges for everybody else, especially the poorest.  I have realised I no longer require to seek information on Victorian life by researching the books on my shelf, I just need to look at what Boris and his cabal are saying and there it is right in front of me.
 
 

Tuesday 31 October 2017

Work...


How wonderful to get back to work and find nobody noticed I was off.  Having looked around and discovered where things had been moved to, things always move when my back is turned, and settling things into their proper place I sat back to meet the rush of visitors.  
She just popped in to browse!
A quiet day which was just as I wished, I did not realise how tired I was until I arrived, not that they cared.  Sweet Peggy dropped me a cup of life saving tea then ran off to be worked like a dog into the ground.  I watched from a distance.


I did however find the Christmas gifts I will be making use off, most appropriate I think.  I never checked how many there were inside, hopefully not too many but I want my moneys worth.  Now I must look out my 'Bah Humbug' hat for the festivities.  Ideal for the shop.


Unfortunately as I looked at the Robins here perched in their box I found myself considering a man who works just over the other side of the park as this Robin looks just like him!  The red breast is not quite the right colour but there is no doubt the shape and expression fit nicely.
Maybe I ought to send one to him...?

 
The painters were in when I was last here and the Victorian area has been brightened up a good deal.  Lots of hard work involved there, so hard we got the men in to do it rather than kill our volunteer painter.  I bet he was glad.  Too much Victoriana appears gloomy and often this reflects a society of poor housing, gas lit factories and shoddy conditions, not helped by a world of smoking chimneys all around.  However Pre-Raphaelite painting reveals a world of colour, men in drab outfits lightened them with colourful waistcoats and middle class housing while crammed full of often overbearing amounts of tat was full of colour also.  A great period the 'Victorian' period, except of course it ought to be divided into several component parts, early, middle and late as each reflects a changing world in the UK.  The changes of the period are with us still, railways, electoral changes, increasing wealth and better education.  Some today need to go back and learn from the Victorians.

    
The organic garden is still producing bright flowers.  Several, mostly these, were standing out in what sunshine there was this morning.   The ever changing garden scene always provides a bright spot all the year round.  Maybe I ought to eat whatever it is she feeds the plants...?



Tuesday 10 January 2017

Museum Musings


Another day another few hours of fun and jollity at the museum.  The term 'fun and jollity' is not to be taken seriously!  It was fun and at times there was jollity but I found too few people to discuss history, theirs or the towns, with today.  Several came in to see the postcard exhibition, 600 postcards in all mostly of the town and area about a hundred years ago, or slightly less.  Too few from the period after the war.  It is amazing just how much remains the same even though it is very different.  Did I just say that?  Indeed little has changed in the basic layout but some buildings are drastically altered.  The old market place, pub and all, is now a modern Tesco, what once was the 'Fairfield' used often by the 'fair' is now a large old Town Hall, modern library and 1930's ex-Post Office building.  It's quite amusing to note how things have changed in many visitors lifetimes.


The school class today, dressed suitably as Victorians, faced the stern Victorian teacher for an hour or so bravely but would not understand a life in which computers of one sort or another were in use. Being about eight years old they have grown up into a computer world and many bought slates, the type once used by schoolchildren learning to write (hold your hand up at the back) just to practice in similar fashion to kids of yesteryear.  We had one or two of those in also today!
Among the stock we have old Victorian pennies made into key chains.  Pennies I once used have become historical items!  Amongst the books we have 'Living in the 50's' and the same in the '60's' but this canny be history, I was there! 


I was much amused this week to read of a lass in Brazil who had spent many years praying to a statue of St Anthony.  Now I have no idea who St Anthony was, if he ever existed, and see no point in praying to dead men, Jesus is alive so ask him, but it is important to ensure you pray to the person you think you are praying to.  This lass was in fact unknown to her making use of a figure from a 'Lord of the Rings' set!
It is not known if she got an answer...

 
With Christmas just past it would be thought that cards were the last thing folks wished to buy yet I sold several today.  The girls like these and the ones featuring the 'Warners Silk Mill' designs.  I prefer cards with humour myself, specially one that fits the receiver, but women prefer intricate designs for the most part it appears.  These animals are particularly popular.  
Christmas cards I suppose have come down now, however I notice mine are still in their place hiding dirty marks and preventing me dusting places, so they had better stay for a while.  This adds a touch of colour to the room and avoids the 'empty feeling' that results from removing them.
Ah well, that's enough fun and hilarity for one day.


 This brings to mind some of my readers....
   

Friday 18 November 2016

Friday Flippancy


You and I may think it is still November but the people who make money plan such things consider this the right time to start the Christmas shop!  Last night the nearby 'Outlet' shopping centre had some famous person I had never heard off switch on their Christmas lights (hooray).  Tomorrow the town lights will be switched on so the centre of town is being prepared for the event.  Several stall have appeared in the centre, I expect many more tomorrow, alongside children's funfair attractions and ten thousand people.  The museum will be open and we too have stalls and activities.  The stall shown has lots of Greek eatable's.  On the right hand side lie lots of those Mediterranean sweet cakes filled with figs, dates and other luxuries. I love them but last time he was here I spent vast amounts fattening myself up as I just ate them all one after another.  This I must avoid this year although now I mention it I begin to fantasise about them, help!!!



I will be there, eventually, attempting to dress as a Victorian!  My top hat is secured at the museum and the girls have a variety of Victorian clobber to wear.  All I have to do now is develop Ricketts and expire before I am five years of age.  With FREE entry (the manger must be having a fit) we ought to get hundreds through the door and mush of the goods on sale ought to go tomorrow.  The shop has been prepared with appropriate kids stocking fillers and much else, especially candles, candles appear to be what women wish for these days, smelly candles.  Possibly this has something to do with the smelly men they live with...?



The weather ought to be tolerable for the switch on but later the sun will arrive and spoil the fireworks which they insist on having each year.  With November the 5th just past the days leading up to and after it the area was like World War 3 at times, we need more of that tomorrow.  I will be abed by then however but the sound will crash all around.  I suspect a good time will be had by all but the Christmas Spirit is alive and well, Christmas shopping spirit that is, people walk into you rushing here and there ignoring others, bless them....



I have almost completed Christmas!  As always I missed out some people, four to be exact, just how many nieces can I have exactly?  Someone has added one or two when I was not looking.  So tomorrow before anything else I must finish that and then little has to be done.  I am convinced you are all in the same situation as I.  What?.....oh!



Thursday 14 July 2016

Delight, Poetry, Painting and Theresa & Boris.


We drinkies from now until Tuesday for me.  I am assured I will not be required at the museum till then, the painting is finished even if I now have a mound of things just lying about like Syrian migrants looking for a home, and I have nothing imposed upon me till Tuesday.
And tonight and tomorrow and Saturday there is football to be perused, proper football featuring Scots teams, none of that foreign rubbish (except for our foreign players that is).
How lovely!


When on my way to a BA (failed) via the Open University some years back we began with Victorians society (meaning of course English Victorians Bah!) and pre-raphaelite painting was among the items noted.  One of the paintings that thrust upon me was this one of 'Mariana' by Millais who sounded like one of those immigrants Brexit was supposed to stop.  This was based on a Shakespeare play, 'Measure for Measure' and a Tennyson Poem.  In the play she was awaiting marriage but as her dowry sank in the sea he hopped it and found someone else.  The poem follows:-
 
"Mariana in the Moated Grange"
(Shakespeare, Measure for Measure


With blackest moss the flower-plots
Were thickly crusted, one and all:
The rusted nails fell from the knots
That held the pear to the gable-wall.
The broken sheds look'd sad and strange:
Unlifted was the clinking latch;
Weeded and worn the ancient thatch
Upon the lonely moated grange.
She only said, "My life is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
She said, "I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!"

Her tears fell with the dews at even;
Her tears fell ere the dews were dried;
She could not look on the sweet heaven,
Either at morn or eventide.
After the flitting of the bats,
When thickest dark did trance the sky,
She drew her casement-curtain by,
And glanced athwart the glooming flats.
She only said, "The night is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
She said, "I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!"

Upon the middle of the night,
Waking she heard the night-fowl crow:
The cock sung out an hour ere light:
From the dark fen the oxen's low
Came to her: without hope of change,
In sleep she seem'd to walk forlorn,
Till cold winds woke the gray-eyed morn
About the lonely moated grange.
She only said, "The day is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
She said, "I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!"

About a stone-cast from the wall
A sluice with blacken'd waters slept,
And o'er it many, round and small,
The cluster'd marish-mosses crept.
Hard by a poplar shook alway,
All silver-green with gnarled bark:
For leagues no other tree did mark
The level waste, the rounding gray.
She only said, "My life is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
She said "I am aweary, aweary
I would that I were dead!"

And ever when the moon was low,
And the shrill winds were up and away,
In the white curtain, to and fro,
She saw the gusty shadow sway.
But when the moon was very low
And wild winds bound within their cell,
The shadow of the poplar fell
Upon her bed, across her brow.
She only said, "The night is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
She said "I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!"

All day within the dreamy house,
The doors upon their hinges creak'd;
The blue fly sung in the pane; the mouse
Behind the mouldering wainscot shriek'd,
Or from the crevice peer'd about.
Old faces glimmer'd thro' the doors
Old footsteps trod the upper floors,
Old voices called her from without.
She only said, "My life is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
She said, "I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!"

The sparrow's chirrup on the roof,
The slow clock ticking, and the sound
Which to the wooing wind aloof
The poplar made, did all confound
Her sense; but most she loathed the hour
When the thick-moted sunbeam lay
Athwart the chambers, and the day
Was sloping toward his western bower.
Then said she, "I am very dreary,
He will not come," she said;
She wept, "I am aweary, aweary,
Oh God, that I were dead!

It must be said that by the time you get to the third stanza you wish she was dead also!


So we now have an idea of what May has for us.  Out go the majority of the 'Posh Boys' and in come her mates and several women all sharing her vision and all looking for half a chance to take her place when she falls.  There is no doubt the planting of Boris Johnson in the Foreign Office and one of the top four jobs in government was a shock.  A shock best summed up by the US spokesman who managed to stifle his laugh and merely smile when asked about the appointment.  Other leaders were less generous and made mocking comments while the personnel of the UK just placed their hands over their heads and wondered what Putin would make of it.  
Dearie me, this is either a way to let him hang by his own rope or a mistake of gargantuan proportions.  I await his meeting with Mrs Clinton who he likened to a 'sadistic nurse in a mental hospital' or Obama who he described as 'part Kenyan who harboured an ancestral dislike of Britain' or the Turkish president who, he stated in a poem, 'has sex with a goat.'  
I should point out this man was born in New York and it is therefore possible he could become President of the United States!
So we now know the right wing leaning cabinet, Hunt remains the Health secretary as no-one else wills to take it, and we await the new 'caring' Tory party with delight.
Hmmm... 


Wednesday 31 July 2013

Too Slothful to Post, so.....

Here is a picture of a pretty girl by a window. (1862)


She is reading a book while waiting for the carpet fitter to arrive!

Thursday 6 June 2013

It's STILL Summer!



Unbelievable!  The sun shone once again today, and I was too hot walking home this afternoon! Jings, crivvens, and help ma boab!  Who would have thought summer would last three days?  There are rumours it may persist further, but I will wait and see for myself on that one.   So it's time for long cold drinks, sitting in the light, feeding the birdies, and watching the girls pass by the swifts fly overhead.  Lovely Jubbly and someone once said.


I spent a couple of happy hours at an informal gathering of volunteers at the museum in the afternoon.  Much the usual kind of 'get to know you' sort of thing, with a huge slice of chocolate which fell onto my plate by mistake.  We met in the Victorian Schoolroom, used by a lass who terrifies the kids with a practical demonstration of Victorian schooling.  They usually hate it!  The desks are just like the ones we used, and probably were in use by the time the school closed in 1990.  
A jolly time was had by all and then I noticed the box full of dirty plates had been placed beside me.  Hmm I thought, I've seen this done before!  I collected said box, to aid the feeble woman by carrying box to kitchen, the woman's place.  Suddenly I found myself alone, the door closed and my hands in the bowl!  Next thing they were all saying goodbye and I was up to my neck in washed cups.  
It happens every time!


Sunshine, blue sky and occasional cloud.  Good innit?


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Tuesday 28 August 2012

A Walk Into the Past



I dragged my emaciated body around to the Museum this afternoon having been summoned to attend by the lovely lass on the door.  You see on Saturday, when I ought to have been busy with the afternoons football, I was dragged out to help the lass cover for her absent helpers.  She had been let down by other volunteers rudely taking the long weekend off.  Tsk!  Being the kind, thoughtfull, (trapped) kind of man I found myself with her until closing time.  This was in fact no hardship, but indeed a pleasure, however I made the kind, helpful, offer to attend if she was ever desperate for cover.  Silly boy!  The girl was hardly in the building this morning, I suppose had not even finished the mornings gossip, and she was on the phone asking when I could be there. So that's three more dates fixed in the diary, what have I let myself in for?

I wandered around the museum, mentioning to another captured volunteer that later I may be able to help with some painting, he kept his doubts well hidden, and I strolled around looking into the past.  Much better than watching television I thought and I was right.  A few coins, rings and objects, possibly idols, from the dim and distant past were on show.  Fragments of live lived here during the Bronze Age, among heavy wooded land with some animals possibly, maybe a pig or a cow.  Urns and large pottery vessels indicate how life, while changing, remains at heart the same.  Water once collected from a stream and carried to the top of a hill was later pumped nearer to the homes.  Vessels to store goods, others to cook, trinkets to decorate the ladies, all reveal changing tastes and quality of life, but at heart the people remain the same.  Bronze Age or Roman, Medieval or Victorian, people never change. 


The weaving machine from the mill that once earned a lass five shillings a week for her ten hour day stands ready.  Here dark black cloth, 'crape,' was manufactured during Victoria's day to supply the need for funeral wear.  Courtauld's employed hundreds of people in their mills and made themselves very rich with the cloth developed here.  The fashionable Victorian's would not be seen dead in anything else.  The other mill, Warner's, produced high quality silk weaving cloth.  These weavers were men for the most part and the quality was such that the Royal Family made use of their services.  The Warner's Archive contains the array of designs highly skilled weavers gave to the world.   Metal windows were a radical development at the turn of the century and Crittall's manufactured them here in the town until recently.  Buildings designed during the twenties often contained these windows and a great many are now 'listed' as important for our heritage.  The 'Titanic' also had windows designed and erected by Crittall's, these failed to keep the ship afloat however.  


This is the Victorian classroom.  Schools bring groups of kids, dressed in mock Victorian garb, to learn how education was taught in times past.  It is a bit worrying that those desks were awfully like the ones we had at school!  One 'teacher' taking such a 'class' would indicate the pupils feet and ask "Shoes? You have shoes?"  This would make them realise that in the past kids their age did not possess shoes unless very wealthy!   Many indeed worked very  long hours until education of sorts became compulsory.  

I enjoyed my wander (you will note I have not mentioned the excellent new Great War exhibit as I am not one to bore you with going on about that) especially as I have not got out much in recent days, the bug causing me to avoid eating for a day or two.  So it was good to refresh the mind with thoughts of the hard lives lived in the past, the benefits we have, and while we fear a price increase of 20 or 30 pence on bread because of weather affecting the harvests we know we can afford basic foods for the most part, in 1900 many could not!  I fear some are indeed in that situation again.  Visit your nearest museum, and find a life!   


Friday 27 April 2012

I Have Nothing to Say



It's one of those weeks. The things that have impressed themselves on my mind, the museum, dead soldiers, Rangers men lying in their teeth, and our corrupt government have not been the stuff to raise laughs or interest those in far flung places such as Texas or Dalkeith.  No sir my scrawls have gained little attention and on top of this the rain keeps coming down.  The weather is of course a talking point in the UK.  With the vast Atlantic on one side and the continent on the other weather patterns vary considerably.  Left over US hurricanes lash our western coast and drop rain everywhere while snowdrifts from the Arctic arrive via Siberia from the east.  This leaves a lush, green landscape in which crops can happily grow.  However it can also depress those who spend several days at a time with raindrops falling on their heads.  Gray skies do not bring smiles, although in the UK blue ones don't do that either.  Walking into a closed glass door however can bring a smile to those standing nearby!  It has been known for the wind (The Mistral?) to blow north from the Sahara to arrive in the south of England on occasion.  While it deposits vast amounts of sand grains in the southern aspect of Spanish homes, while leaving the north grit free but chilled, rarely does the dust come this far.  It does however bring a welcome warmth, we miss it at the moment.  What is arriving, whether from west or south, is Atlantic rain!  Tons of it is falling, a months supply at a time, and the plucky Brit is doing what he does on such occasions, he grumbles!  Of course while the rain is indeed heavier and more persistent than usual it is Springtime and this weather occurs every Springtime to some extent.   The plucky Brit of course has forgotten this and merely whines about how bad it is, global warming, ice age, and the Labour Party's fault!  Unless we have to the answer is to stay indoors unless the sun shines, but that would lead to folks complaining about being trapped I suppose.

Not being one to complain, or indeed to blow my own trumpet,  and I remarked as much this morning in Tesco's where the lass made a comment about kids behaviour.  "I wasn't perfect," she claimed, "But they are so bad today." I took the opportunity to remind her I had been perfect as a child, and her story changed. "So was I," she lied!  The young woman following on suddenly woke up to add, "That makes three of us."  I decided I was in a store full of gloating maniacs and left before anyone else joined in.  But is it true?  Are kids really worse today than 30, 60 or 100 years ago?  I doubt it.  Human nature doesn't change and certainly not in that time.  Culture does, discipline does, and we live in liberal times where freedom easily becomes licence. Personal freedom is more important than other people, and consideration for them lessens from parent to child.  However all is not lost and never indeed was in danger of being lost.  People were just as bad in the past, two major wars, a depression and less wealth all round covered up selfishness and human sin.  Things are more open today, exaggerated by tabloid press, and the good that has always been done by all manner of people still continues.  However that said all brats should be locked in school 24 hours a day, seven days a week in my view!

The museum has a Victorian classroom, a very good practical idea in my mind, that educates the brats on past teaching methods.  Dressed accordingly, but with shoes not worn by kids in the past, they learn the highly disciplined schooling of the mid Victorian times.  I thought of this yesterday while attending a meeting to discuss a new layout for the museum.  Surrounded by knowledgeable people who knew their subject i was a bit out of place, but opened the gob anyway, and found truly I was out of place.  After a morning discussion I confess to still not being sure of what has been decided, my lack of concentration, the debate, and many suggestions means I await the next news.  The Victorian times do interest me.  Vast changes in western society, influencing the entire world, mass movement of people, railways, leading to industrial development, increasing wealth, and indeed leisure times.  They are so near to us it is possible to identify with Victorians in a way we cannot with those of previous centuries, they were too different in every way.  Our towns are still based much on Victorian development, as is the rail system and much else.  Prices have changed somewhat mind!  It's a very interesting period and I would like a time machine to go back there for a look around, although taking all the medicine I require with me of course!

 I did however discover a wonderful thing today.  The old telly, no longer used since the 'analog' was replaced by 'digital' signal, does in fact play the videos that are stacked around here.  This is good as there is many wonderful programmes available, much better than the junk now filling TV.  I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get use of them again.  I remain content with small results.  Great events shake me not!  Who said cheapskate.....?  

Of course much of my time has been taken up on newspaper sites adding pertinent comments on the Rangers FC situation.  This club, sectarian to make money, arrogant and offhand to the rest, has been discovered fiddling the taxes, around £49 million, and this added to failing further tax by fiddling the way they paid players doubling the money owed by the 'loyalists' to the queen they sing about each week.  The abuse, the threats and the refusal to accept blame has risen to a level that would embarrass residents in Barlinnie Prison.  Pleading a 'special case' because '"It's us," appears to be the theme.  I am happy to report few attempt to justify their behaviour on the comments, almost all condemn them.  It is the club that whines and bleats in a shameful manner, blaming this one and that but never admitting their fault.  Regrettably  the more they speak out the more I hope for their demise.  An altogether terrible situation all of their own making.

Not much to laugh about, although I did laugh at Rangers, saw humour aplenty amongst the volunteers at the museum, laughed at folks blogs, where intended I mean, and am within myself beaming these days.  Have I been drinking......?


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Tuesday 13 March 2012

1890



London 1890.  There is not much difference between the traffic then and the traffic now.  People meander across the road in a similar manner today, although there is not quite so much room in between vehicles.  The machines today are of course faster but a horse and cart was just as deadly.  In fact a man who;s name escapes me obtained permission to erect a traffic island in the middle of one road in an effort to make crossing safer.  When it was complete he was so excited he ran across to it and was killed by traffic!  You will note the police still question suspects, buses make up their own rules, and men stand around being important.  Women are to be found there but most will be elsewhere, in the shopping districts!






Wednesday 14 December 2011

Museum Morning



I spent a delightful couple of hours this morning listening to some knowledgeable women discussing Victorian life. The proposed new layout, the items in poor and middle class houses and the ability to die from hundreds of diseases we never think much about today.  Jolly interesting I say!  I learned a great deal, most notably I was again reminded of just how little I do know, and just how much knowledge there is out there in this world!  As we had mentioned in passing the difference smell makes to daily life, and the Late Victorians had a variety of aromas to inhale that we miss out on today, I had a quick look to see if there was any way we could 'imitate' the daily fragrances of the time. Sadly the only think people appear interested in imitating is fake vomit, and I found that hard to swallow.  The health we posses and the economic power we possess, even in such recession times, makes us greedy, keen to grumble at slight losses and ensures we find it difficult to endure today in a way our forefathers took for granted.  Then it was a case of 'get on with it,' as  there was no other option.  I am usually adept at creating sniffs and I am sure one will turn up somewhere.  


My surfing for smell was interrupted by the landlords handyman who had come looking for a leak.  I misunderstood at first and proferred a carrot but having been shown what to do with it i declined.  It appears the washing machine connection has been leaking for a while on the drip below and dripping on the chap downstairs. So instead of having fun I had to stand and watch an imitation plumber swear at the pipes. That is no fun I can tell you.  What seemed like hours later I got back to business but by then it was time for 'Flanders Stew' and 'Eggheads.'  



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